After a week to recover from a 10-8 loss to Notre Dame last Saturday, the Penn State men's lacrosse team will go right back to the grind with three games over spring break, including two against ranked teams, and their ECAC opener at Georgetown March 10.

"We definitely don't have any easy games," Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel said. "Our guys know that. They know they can't let up from the beginning of the year until the end."

The No. 20 ranked Nittany Lions will begin this stretch tomorrow against Villanova at Houlba Hall at 2:30 p.m. The unranked Wildcats are certainly no doormats. They return five starters from a team that went 9-5 last season and finished 23rd in the country.

Villanova's strengths are on attack and defense. Leading the attack will be coach Randy Marks' sons, sophomore Brian and junior Justin. Brian finished third on last year's Wildcat squad with 37 points, and Justin led Villanova with five goals in the Wildcat's opening win over St. Joseph's.

The Villanova offense is much more organized than most. The Wildcats run a lot of plays, and move the ball a lot, unlike the majority of college teams. Assistant coach Lars Tiffany has been simulating the Villanova offense in practice this week to prepare the Nittany Lions.

"We want to pressure Villanova," Tiffany said. "We think we have some better athletes on defense and in the midfield than they do. We want to play an up-tempo game and press their midfielders, because they have a lot of inexperience there."

The Lions will travel to Delaware for a game against the No. 17 Blue Hens Wednesday at 7 p.m. Delaware is 1-1 with a win over Mt. St. Mary's, and a loss to No. 3 Loyola.

"Delaware is a very good team," Thiel said. "They're always a real challenge. They've been one of our great rivals, but we didn't get to play them last year, so it's good to see them back on the schedule."

Before taking a year off the rivalry last season, the Nittany Lions and Blue Hens split their last four games.

This version of the Delaware squad is led by senior Jason Lavey, who paced the Blue Hens with 71 points last season.

They will finish up the week with their first ECAC game against Georgetown, the defending conference champion ranked No. 5 in the nation. The Hoyas made it to the NCAA quarterfinals last season before losing to eventual national champion Syracuse. They were dubbed preseason conference favorite by the league's coaches, and had four players elected to the preseason all-conference team.

"Georgetown is the top team in our league," Thiel said. "The fact that we have to open our conference season with them is tough, and it's going to be difficult for us to get ready for them in the two days after the Delaware game, but our guys know they have to step up and play."

"All of these teams are going to present a challenge, but we're just going to have to come in and knock them all off. We just have to play everybody tough and be in the game in the fourth quarter, and anything can happen."